1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video game machine for playing a video ball game and a storage medium which stores a video ball game program, and more particularly to a video game machine for playing a video ball game such as a soccer game, a basketball game, etc. and a storage medium which stores a video ball game program such as a video soccer game program, a video basketball game program, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are known video soccer game machines which display a virtual ball game space representing the field of a soccer stadium and two soccer teams on a video display screen. The game player of such a soccer game machine controls the displayed game characters representing soccer players of one of the two soccer teams to play a soccer game with the other soccer team in the virtual soccer field.
The soccer game machine has a manual controller that is operated by the game player to control the game characters of the soccer game assigned to the game player. The manual controller has, among other keys, directional keys for moving a player's game character in the virtual soccer field, kick buttons, i.e., a shoot button and a pass button, for kicking the soccer ball while the player's game character is dribbling the ball, a tackle button for causing the game character to tackle one of the game characters belonging to the opponent soccer team while the opponent game character is dribbling the ball.
For the game player to control the player's game character to capture the soccer ball from an opponent game character, the game player operates the manual controller as follows: The game player operates the directional keys to move the player's game character to a position that is spaced a predetermined tackle distance from the opponent game character, i.e., a distance at which the player's game character can tackle the opponent game character. Then, the game player presses the tackle button while pressing one of the directional buttons which corresponds to a direction in which the game player wants the player's game character to tackle the opponent game character. In the virtual soccer field, the player's game character tackles the opponent game character and possibly captures the soccer ball from the opponent game character.
In the conventional video soccer game machines, the tackle distance referred to above is set to a critical value below which the player's game character will immediately come into contact with the opponent game character. Therefore, moving the player's game character toward the opponent game character and pressing the tackle button while orienting the player's game character in a direction to tackle the opponent game character at the tackle distance requires a considerable amount of skill on the part of the game player. It is highly difficult or even impossible for those game players who are not accustomed to playing the video soccer game or who are not well trained to operate the manual controller, to cause the player's game character to tackle the opponent game character. When unskilled game players play the conventional video soccer game, they are unable to control the player's game character to capture the soccer ball from the opponent game character, and hence cannot enjoy the video soccer game sufficiently.